FG ready for disease resurgence

Prof. Abdusalam Nasidi, National Coordinator, Centre for Disease Control (CDC), on Tuesday said Nigeria had taken adequate measures to contain the resurgence of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country.

Nasidi disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja. According to him, the measures are in response to the recent resurgence of the disease in neighbouring Liberia which had earlier been certified Ebola-free by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Nasidi said that screening had been intensified at strategic entries in the country, with the establishment of a rapid respond team and an emergency response centre, at the federal level.

He said: "There are automatic temperature scanning cameras mounted at strategic places which take one’s temperature and other parameters.

"If it indicates a high temperature, such an individual would be apprehended and taken into isolation immediately. With this level of preparedness, I don’t think that the diseases can take us by surprise anymore.’’

Nasidi further said that CDC had been working with various scientists from Germany, Guinea and other counties to discover other possible causes and the prevention of Ebola.

He said the CDC had organised trainings for medical personnel and volunteers, adding that some of the programmes were still ongoing in various states in the country.

He said that during the outbreak of Ebola in Liberia in 2014, 211 Nigerian experts were sent to the country and Sierra-Leone, as part of African support to Ebola in West Africa.

"We were able to assist the countries to reactivate health care services which led to a drastic reduction of the epidemic before its resurgence,’’ he said.

Nasidi said that in order to fully contain the disease, the National Orientation Agency had been involved in educating people in various languages, mostly on the danger of consuming bush meat. He warned that the consumption of bat meat remained the main source of picking up the virus.